Rainy Day Reads

I love Italy. Back in 2005 I spent 4 weeks Interrailing down the country with a good friend of mine. I remember that time as filled with sunshine, amazing sights and lots of gelato. I also remember long train rides, sweating profusely in the summer heat and constantly being stressed out about finding the next hostel. But let’s not dwell on that bit! During this epic trip we went to Venice for a day. We squeezed it in between an early morning train from Milan and a late train to Bologna. We decided to do it like this because we had heard that Venice would be quite expensive, but we didn’t want to miss it. And I do feel like we made the most of our day there.  We went to Piazza San Marco to look at St Mark’s Basilica. This cathedral was first built in 828 AD to house the supposed relics of Mark the Evangelist. In 978 the church was restored or rebuilt after a fire, but the oldest parts of the present church probably date to 1063. The building style is Byzantine with fe...